iAm: Louisa Koh

A 30-something from sunny Singapore who's tried her hand at lots of things, such as selling skin care & make-up, working in a (boring) corporate setting, trying to carve a singing career, giving private tuition, being a fitness instructor, writing/editing etc...

Besides exasperating her parents to no end, she loves experimenting with new make-up looks, uncovering the best make-up & skin care products, modelling for herself before the camera, singing at the top of her lungs (with preferably no one to hear it), and writing whatever, whenever (as you can already tell).

Etude House PPP503 & Sweet Recipe Polishes

Hallo lovelies! How are you keeping on a blue Monday? I hope life’s been good to you. If not, I hope the nail porn that follows will cheer you up a bit! (I know I love me some mani pictures and I follow Jen’s From Head to Toe’s Manicure Monday religiously!)

Last April, I ventured into Etude House nail polishes as I was on a tight budget and some of their polishes were quite cute. Although you get less volume per bottle (10 ml instead of 15 ml), you can’t really complain at the price tag of $6.90 per bottle.

Etude House launched a Sweet Recipe collection last Spring, inspired by the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale. The collection featured eyeshadow in cupcake tins and chocolate bar blocks, candy cane shaped lip glosses and nail polish masquerading as ice-cream cones. How kawaii is that?!

I layered 1 coat of Etude House Apricot Candy over a base colour, JulieG 9 to 5, a peach creme for the above swatch. On its own, Apricot Candy is very very sheer and would probably take many coats for it to look decently opaque. If you want a denser glitter sandwich look, try another 1-2 coats on top of a base colour.

Mani for a Cause

Last year, I participated in a number of “manicure for a cause” themes, and I used the Etude House Mint Choco Chip for Mint Mani for Talia Joy cum International Ice-cream Day on 22 July last year:

Etude House Mint Choco Chip from the Sweet Recipe collection

Talia Joy, a very inspiring young girl suffering from cancer had just passed away then after a long battle and the manicure community had started a “mint mani for Talia Joy” on Instagram to commemorate her. At the same time, a local Instagram mani community had a “International Ice-Cream Day” theme going on, and I thought Etude House Mint Choco Chip, with its ice-cream packaging and all, was perfect for it!

Now, there are many indie polish brands pushing their own variation of the Mint Chocolate Chip ice-cream look. I personally really liked this Etude House glitter combo, as the mint base colour is just nice, and not too sheer (I don’t remember how many coats I used but safely around 2-3 coats). The pink square glitters and light green hexes add a touch of interest to the dark brown hex glitters in various sizes.

The other mint choc chip polish I tried was Smitten Polish Mint Chip, which I ended up selling away. I mean, how many mint choc chip polishes does one need right?!

Blue Nails for Autism

In April last year (actually I think it happens every year), the nail community made it a point to paint their nails blue to spread awareness for autism. This one strikes a chord in me, ‘cos I have a dear friend whose son is autistic, and she has struggled many years to bring him up. He remains a worry for her and her family although he’s now 21. It really is not easy to raise an autistic child 🙁

Etude House PPP503 with Zoya Skylar accent nail

I chose Zoya Skylar, a dusty blue with gold shimmer from the True collection Spring 2012, for the accent nail as I wanted to add a decal to it:

Added a gold rose decal to the accent fingernail

Ain’t the Etude House PPP503 pretty with its cornflower blue base, small dark blue hexes, larger medium blue hexes and various-sized gold hexes? I think Etude House has a winner here!

Etude House PPP503 in 2-3 coats

Sorry I do not remember the number of coats it took me for this polish, but I would safely say 2-3 coats.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the nail pics! 😀 The Sweet Recipe collection was a limited edition, so it may not be available any longer, but I am pretty sure PPP503 is from the permanent line so phew there!

For more info on how to get Etude House in Singapore, head on to their website or FB page.

Stay tuned ‘cos I’ll be posting more nail pics in the upcoming weeks as a regular blog feature!